Political Science Extra Credit Blog Post

Andrew Tarbox

Green Block

October 31, 2012

In our political science class, there have been many experiences that have allowed me to explore a certain issue in great depth. The most interesting one of these experiences was the presidential campaign blog post and blog commenting response. During this assignment I examined the presidential campaign of Jimmy Carter. In his campaign, Jimmy Carter had to portray trust and a personalized relationship with the American people. Without these characteristics, the American people would have maintained the distrust with the government that President Nixon caused after the Watergate scandal. By having the ability to make blog comments on other case studies, I was able to see the similarities between Jimmy Carter’s campaign and the Obama and Lincoln campaigns. They all had to create personal attachment with the American people after political or economic turmoil. Furthermore, not only was it interesting to see these similarities, but it was also interesting to see how similar the campaigns were to Cicero’s campaign for consul. They all used modified versions of Cicero’s idea of personal attachment. This demonstrates how when one precedent was set for campaign techniques, other campaigns followed.

While I did not receive direct feedback from peers on my blog post, their comments on my post gave me options for how I would improve it. For example, one comment I received was if Carter’s campaign was modern in message, given its use of vague generalities. I believe that if I were given the opportunity to make revisions on my blog I would have mentioned how both Carter and Obama used vague generalities. This would have emphasized how campaign techniques have remained similar to one another. Through this project, I also developed a growth mindset. I became more aware of the proper strategies and techniques candidates should use in different circumstances. For example, Jimmy Carter needed to capitalize on a personalized relationship with the American people post Watergate. In addition, continuing off the idea of appealing to the people under certain circumstances, this experience provided me with a new perspective on the campaign of Mitt Romney. Often times, candidates need to appear milder on their stances on issues to appeal to a greater group of people. For example, while Romney does not fully support some women’s rights, he needed to make comments such as his “binders full of women” one to appeal to this broad group of voters and show them that he is fighting for them. By developing a growth mindset, I was able to connect the Jimmy Carter campaign with campaigns that happened in the past and are happening now.